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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Last week for NSW statutory review submissions

A reminder, to me to get cracking as much as it is to you, that submissions to the statutory review of the NSW Government Information (Public Access) Act and the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act close on 29 August.

I'm no fan of the way these reviews are conducted- a notice that the review is underway that few will ever see, terms of reference limited to "determine whether the policy objectives of the Acts remain valid and whether the terms of the Acts remain appropriate for securing these objectives", no discussion or issues paper, no dialogue or fora for interested parties to engage and discuss, and almost certainly no attempt by the agency conducting the review or any agency to survey users, or frequent users. On the other hand government agencies will be well armed with suggestions that reflect their interests.

Somewhat similar to the unsatisfactory process in the review of the Commonwealth act by Dr Hawke that the government has now had a year to chew over.

In Queensland the review of the RTI act and aspects of the information privacy act kicked off a year ago with release of two discussion papers but not a word since.


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